Is Shohei Ohtani the new Freak? Like Tim Lincecum, he’s must-see theater

Is Shohei Ohtani the new Tim Lincecum? When Lincecum walked off the mound at his peak, he left batters and fans thinking they’ve never seen anyone quite like this. Just like Ohtani, a decade later.

Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images, Ross D. Franklin / AP

The swings and misses remind me of another time. The feebleness of the batters takes me back to an era of dominance and wonderment. When Shohei Ohtani made darned capable A’s hitters look as though they were swinging a bat for the first time, one other pitcher came to mind.

Tim Lincecum doesn’t have Ohtani’s velocity or stature or hitting ability. But when Lincecum walked off the mound, at least at his peak, he left batters and fans thinking they hadn’t seen anyone quite like this. Just like Ohtani, a decade later.

To confirm I wasn’t on the wrong track, like seemingly everyone facing the 6-foot-4 marvel from Japan, I checked with a pro scout who was in Anaheim on Sunday for Ohtani’s seven-inning masterpiece for the Angels, the first six of which were perfect.

3of 6The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani is the focus of Coliseum fans’ attention as he warms up before his first big-league pitching outing.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

4of 6Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani waits to be introduced before playing Oakland Athletics during MLB game at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 29, 2018.Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

5of 6Shohei Ohtani (17) pitches in the second inning as the Oakland Athletics played the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, April 1, 2018.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

6of 6Giants pitcher and Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum visits with the media in a luxury suite at AT&T Park in San Francisco Friday Feb 6, 2009. Approximately thirty San Francisco Giants and their coaching staff took part in a pre spring training media day as rain covered the field.Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle

“Yeah, you can compare them as far as the level of deception and consistency with their arm speed, both top shelf,” the scout said. “Plus, Lincecum threw in the mid-90s then, so he kept them honest, like with this guy.”

Lincecum, who’s attempting a comeback with the Rangers, took the game by storm when winning Cy Young Awards in 2008 and 2009 and leading the Giants to their first World Series championship in San Francisco in 2010. In all three years, he topped the National League in strikeouts.

He was a tiny man with an unusual windup and a lovable persona, and his repertoire of pitches that made hitters look silly added to the Freak’s mythical qualities.

Now along comes Ohtani, who’s taking the game by storm at another level. This modern-day Lincecum hits tape-measure home runs — three in three games in between two starts on the mound, both against the A’s.

Back in the day, Lincecum’s changeup was a thing of beauty, used in two-strike counts to end at-bats. The pitch was harder than the average changeup — 10 mph quicker than Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman’s — and perplexed batters. At the last moment, as the ball sailed from a batter’s sight, he was swinging at air.

Just like Ohtani’s split-fingered fastball. A’s hitters saw it on consecutive Sundays, and they’d be fine not seeing it again for a long, long time.

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani during the first inning of a baseball game on April 8, 2018.

Photo: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press

Ohtani struck out 12 batters Sunday, dazzling them with a fastball in the high 90s (that touched 100) and splitter in the high 80s (that sometimes topped 90). Of his 91 pitches, 59 were strikes. Of the 59 strikes, 44 were swings. Of the 44 swings, 24 were misses — the most by any pitcher this season. Of the 24 misses, 16 were splitters.

In the two games, Ohtani threw 56 splitters. Six were put in play. None for hits.

“He’s going to have to get a better slider for these major-league hitters. They’ll figure it out. They always do. It needs work at the major-league level.”

Certainly, Ohtani can evolve. Lincecum did.

In college, Lincecum was a two-pitch pitcher (fastball, curve), which is all he needed to be. By his rookie year, he had a changeup — a pitch with which he only experimented in college — but didn’t use it consistently. He eventually made it a major part of his repertoire and added a slider that he threw a bunch in the first championship season.

He was able to throw any pitch in any count, with a similar release point, and get outs.

The changeup put Lincecum at another level, the ultimate complement to his fastball and often confused with his slider.

“Even in the dugout, you might not be able to tell the difference. Even guys on your own team,” Lincecum once told me. “The pitches have the same kind of speed, maybe just a different look as they get closer to the plate.”

How so?

“A slider is always going to do one of two things: go across or down. A changeup, who knows? It’s going away to lefties, in to lefties as well. It’s doing a number of things. Sometimes even batters can’t tell. Is that a slider? A changeup?”

That’s what the scout recalled of Lincecum’s changeup. You just didn’t know where it would go. The grip always was the same; the different release points determined the location.

“It’s just not possible for Lincecum’s changeup to be in the zone that often,” the scout said. “It was like a Nerf ball or Wiffle ball into the wind. It comes out hard but doesn’t do what you expect.

“Same thing with Ohtani’s split. The arm speed is no different than the fastball. You can’t see rotation, apparently, from what I see of the hitters. I mean, it’s big-time movement.”

Ohtani’s 10-mph difference between his fastball and splitter is similar to the difference between Lincecum’s pitches: mid-90s fastball and mid-80s change.

Batters will begin to adjust to Ohtani’s pitching, just as pitchers will begin to adjust to Ohtani’s hitting. He’ll need to adjust accordingly as well.

But make no mistake: Ohtani is capturing the imagination of the baseball world, just as Lincecum did a decade ago.

John Shea is the San Francisco Chronicle's national baseball writer and columnist. He is in his 33rd year covering baseball, including 28 in the Bay Area. He wrote three baseball books, including Rickey Henderson's biography ("Confessions of a Thief") and "Magic by the Bay," an account of the 1989 World Series.